Political Science Commons^™

Does French Matter? France And Francophonie In The Age Of Globalization, Jody L. Neathery-Castro, Mark O. Rousseau

Political Science Faculty Publications

THE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE LA FRANCOPHONIE (OIF) increasingly acts as a powerful French-speaking voice in defense of both French culture and language and in advancing French-speaking nations' multiple global, political and economic interests. While the OIF includes developed as well as developing¹ nations, its policies and financial resources come from its wealthier and more economically powerful members, fueling charges that it exists to represent those members' interests. The OIF is unique among international organizations in propounding economic policies based on assumptions different from those espoused by the World Trade Organization (WTO). These differences become most apparent in OIF's strong …

Some Yemeni Ideas About Human Rights, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

Yemeni intellectuals voiced human rights concerns throughout the twentieth century. Of course, as elsewhere, the early incarnations of a human rights movement in this most populous corner of Arabia did not use the term huquq al-insan (human rights), popularized only in the 1990s. Moreover, the emphasis was consistently on limiting arbitrary governance and justice. Still, Yemenis tackled issues such as social equality, popular participation, judicial autonomy, due process, prison conditions, and intellectual freedom, among others. This chapter explores how a fragmented yet tenacious intellectual movement grounded in indigenous political culture produced writings intended to breach authoritarianism for over half a …

Election Reform After The 2000 Election, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

The 2000 presidential election, marked by a crisis in the electoral process in the state of Florida and a challenge to the legitimacy of the election of George W. Bush, sparked a national debate on the quality of American democracy. The discussion quickly came to focus on "technical" problems associated with voting practices, including issues related to voter registration, ballot counting, ballot machinery, and election administration. Numerous commissions weighed in on these issues and made recommendations for reforming various aspects of the election system.¹ Congress debated election reform and ultimately passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) at the …

Beyond The End Of The Beginning, Daniel J. Palazzolo, Doug Chapin

Political Science Faculty Publications

The chapters in this volume contain detailed analyses of election reform politics in eleven states from 2001 to 2003. Over this three-year period, the states and Congress passed legislation that was designed to address the many serious problems with election administration that came to light during the 2000 presidential election. Each of the case studies revealed important insights about how the individual states responded to the 2000 presidential election and the requirements and incentives of the HAVA. The common framework of nine key factors for analyzing reform politics enables us to compare the results of the individual studies and determine …

Politics, Rights, And The Refugee Problem, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed to the years between World War I and World War II as the time when the plight of refugees became a pressing political problem.' If Arendt were still alive (she died in 1975), she would no doubt agree that the problem is at least as pressing in the early twenty-first century as it was sixty or more years ago, when she herself was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Who would not agree? According to a report of the U.N. Population Division, 16 million people were refugees at the …

The Politics Of Katrina In New Orleans: A View From Ground Zero, Christine L. Day, Marc R. Rosenblum

Political Science Faculty Publications

What is New Orleans like today? What will it take to return the city to some semblance of normalcy? Stunned by the events and revelations of governmental incompetence since Katrina, we review Katrina's aftermath and chime in on current policy debates about the city’s future. Our love for New Orleans may compromise our objectivity, but we find scholarly inspiration in three excellent articles in the last issue of The Forum.

Autonomy, Domination, And The Republican Challenge To Liberalism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Like Sunstein and other advocates of 'republican' or 'civic' liberalism, I believe that it is historically unsound and politically unwise to insist on a sharp distinction between liberalism and republicanism. Others disagree, however, and there is much to be learned from their position even if, ultimately, we should not adopt it. Those who take this more radical neo-republican view advance two main lines of argument: first, that the liberal emphasis on neutrality and procedural fairness is fundamentally at odds with the republican commitment to promoting civic virtue; and, second, that republicans and liberals conceive of liberty or freedom in incompatible …

Killing Live 8, Noisily: The G-8, Liberal Dissent And The London Bombings, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

The organizers of Live 8, the week-long, celebrity-driven musical campaign for increased aid and debt relief for poverty-stricken nations, plugged their July 6 concert in an Edinburgh stadium as "a celebration of the largest and loudest cry to make poverty history the world has ever seen." By rush hour the next morning, four coordinated bombings in the London transit system had stolen the show from the wellorchestrated international extravaganza and handed the microphone to Tony Blair and George W. Bush. Talk about a vast right-wing conspiracy: the London terrorists could not have done more to strengthen the hand of the …

Election Reform In Virginia: Deliberation And Incremental Change, Daniel J. Palazzolo, John T. Whelan, Elizabeth Peiffer

Political Science Faculty Publications

Several key factors explain the incremental approach to election law after the 2000 presidential election. The close election in Florida spurred lawmakers in Virginia to create the Joint Subcommittee Studying Virginia's Election Process and Voting Technologies. This special subcommittee was formed to learn more about the capacity of election administration. Through that process, Virginia officials concluded that the election system was fundamentally sound, though they identified a need for additional resources to increase staff, improve polling place access for disabled voters, and clean up registration rolls. A declining fiscal outlook limited budget resources and constrained the legislature from adopting the …

Trying To Save The Garden: What If “Rat Choice” Hadn’T Invaded Public Policy And Public Administration? A Public Administration Satire, Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications

The study of public administration is a huge garden of fruits and vegetables. There are a wide variety of different plant species that are beneficial to the public interest. Unfortunately, however, every garden also harbors pests, both of the plant and animal kind. In this essay, the “garden” represents the fruits enjoyed by a democratic public administration and the primary destructive force is the unchecked power of the rat.1 The rat represents the worst of capitalist behavior that undermines democracy and public service. First, we will make a simple salad comprised of fruit, nuts, and vegetables. Second, we will be …

Different Regions, Similar Views, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

U.S. regions have had radically different political histories. The South long has been seen as the nation’s most conservative region, while New England has been perceived as the most liberal.

An examination of 40 years of survey data generated by the American National Election Study, however, suggests that differences between the South and New England on social issues tend to be small, are getting smaller, and in some instances have disappeared.

Reparations To Africa And The Group Of Eminent Persons, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

In the last ten years, a worldwide movement has emerged for reparations to various previously subordinated groups for past wrongs. This paper discusses the movement for reparations to the continent of Africa. It begins with a discussion of the United Nations-sponsored World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. It then traces the discussion of reparations to Africa back to the Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) established in the early 1990s by the Organization of African Unity to pursue reparations for slavery and (perhaps) other wrongs perpetrated on Africa. Only …

Civic Engagement In The First-Year Experience: Developing Civic Literacy, Jody L. Neathery-Castro

Political Science Faculty Publications

Students often misinterpret civic engagement strategies as an alternative to political action and civic participation. This essay argues that urban universities should integrate aspects of politics into civic engagement in order to link civic service with civic change. A model from the University of Nebraska-Omaha suggests that introducing civic learning in the first year is highly effective, especially for urban university students who have strong ties to the city.

Colonization And The Rule Of Law: Comparing The Effectiveness Of Common Law And Civil Law Countries, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The rule of law is one of the most important components of any explanation of cross-national differences in economic well-being. But what leads to better rule of law in a country? Using an institutional approach this paper probes the effect of legal systems in influencing the rule of law. There has long been speculation that the countries adopting English common law are better at providing legal dispute resolution than those adopting the continental forms of civil law. That speculative assessment is found to be true only in those countries that have been colonized, further analysis demonstrates that it is the …

Congressional Leadership, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Congressional leadership takes place within an institution that serves two primary functions: making laws and representing citizens. Leaders play essential roles organizing the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senatethey set the schedule for debating bills and resolutions; formulate proposals to address public problems; represent their party's priorities through the media and in relations with leaders of the opposing party; support or oppose the president's initiatives in the legislative process; and build coalitions to pass legislation. The main challenge of congressional leadership is to advance the collective interests of the nation or of the leader's political party, …

Retributive Justice: The Gacaca Process In Rwanda, Sandra F. Joireman, Allison Corey

Political Science Faculty Publications

After decades of cycling violence between Hutu and Tutsi groups in Rwanda and Burundi, violence peaked in 1994 with a genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, during which the Hutu majority slaughtered 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus, leaving the country with 120,000 accused génocidaires awaiting trial. Rwanda's gacaca courts were established as a response to the backlog of untried genocide cases. These courts disturbingly distinguish between genocide and war crimes committed during the same era, trying only those accused of genocide. This article argues that the gacaca process will contribute to the insecurity of all Rwandan citizens in the future, since …

Communitarianism And Republicanism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Communitarianism and republicanism are closely related schools of thought - so closely related that friend and foe alike sometimes conflate them. The relationship is evident in their Latin roots: communitarians are concerned with communitas, the common life of people who form a community, and republicans are devoted to the res publica, the good of the public. Of the two, however, only republicanism traces its lineage as well as its name to ancient Rome. Indeed, scholars often look beyond Rome to the philosophers and city-states of ancient Greece, particularly Aristotle and Sparta, for the origins of republicanism. For the …

War And State Formation: A Mennonite Critique, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper is an attempt to tackle the theory of war as a tool of state formation. Though I use the tools of my discipline to refute the theory in its contemporary manifestation, the paper is motivated by a theological belief regarding the sinfulness and depravity of war. I begin the paper by thoroughly exploring the benefits of strong states from a comparative historical perspective, since this has been critical to the theory's revival. Then I will discuss the theory that war makes strong states, looking first at the work of Charles Tilly, the best-known theorist in the area of …

Facing Citizen Complaints In China, 1951-1996, Laura M. Luehrmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article examines Chinese institutions designed to funnel citizen opinions to leaders. It argues that the dynamic between individuals hoping to solve grievances and officials hoping to scout out problems strengthens higher-level control over subordinates. The process, when done well, may promote regime legitimacy.

Texas: A Big State Of Big Metros, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

Texas was good to George w. Bush. Bush garnered 3.800,272 votes (59.3 percent) and won by a margin of 1,368,444 votes. furthermore. Bush's win was a thorough one, as he carried 53 of 56 metro counties and 176 of 197 rural ones. Bush also posted his best non-metro performance in the South. capturing 65.7 percent of the vote.

Mississippi: An Exception To The Rule, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

With 34.8 percent of its vote coming from metro areas. Mississippi is the least metropolitan Southern state. Mississippi's rural nature and sizable African-American population, made the state one of the few in 2000 where George W. Bush performed better in metro areas.

La Influencia Regional Y El Apoyo Ciudadano A Las Reformas Neoliberales Mexicanas, Charles L. Davis, Jorge E. Figueroa

Political Science Faculty Publications

Por medio de encuestas de opinión pública llevadas a cabo en México en los años de 1991 y 1996, el presente estudio examina empíricamente las bases regionales de apoyo popular a las reformas neoliberales (privatizaciones y el TLC). Se encontró que el apoyo ciudadano a estas reformas fue mayor en las regiones económicamente más avanzadas como el norte y el Distrito Federal y menor en los estados sureños y centrales, a pesar de que el nivel de este apoyo declinó en todas las regiones entre 1991 y 1996. Se analizan dos hipótesis alternativas para explicar las variaciones regionales de apoyo …

Louisiana: Outside New Orleans, Bush Dominates, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

Al Gore's showing in Louisiana rested heavily upon the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), particularly Orleans Parish Gore received 34.4 percent of his total support from the New Orleans MSA, and 17 8 percent of his total vote came from Orleans Parish, which has borders that coincide with the City of New Orleans.

Book Review: The Crowded Greenhouse: Population, Climate Change, And Creating A Sustainable World, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

Aimed at a lay reader, The Crowded Greenhouse is the collaborative effort of John Firor, director emeritus of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and his wife, population expert Judith Jacobsen. The first three chapters (written by Jacobsen) deal with population issues, and the second three chapters (written by Firor) assess climate change. This volume proceeds from the assumptions that the earth is finite, that human population cannot grow indefinitely, and that humans must act now to avoid negative environmental consequences from population growth.

Cultural Rights And Internal Minorities: Of Pueblos And Protestants, Andrew M. Robinson

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article considers the question: should rights extended to cultural communities to help them preserve themselves include the right to discipline dissident members who violate cultural norms? The case of the Pueblo Protestants is employed to consider two important defenses of cultural rights (revisionist liberal and cultural communitarian) that offer conflicting answers. Both are found unsatisfactory because of their implicit reliance on “cultural monism” (that is, the assumption that individuals identify with only one cultural community). An approach to defining cultural rights is then outlined that avoids this assumption and its application is illustrated with respect to the Pueblo case.

Democracy And The Thai Middle Class: Globalization, Modernization, And Constitutional Change, Neil A. Englehart

Political Science Faculty Publications

Although democratization in Thailand in the 1990s is commonly characterized as a classic case of modernization theory in action, economic globalization provides a better explanation for Thailand's democratization process. Economic growth in the country has been based on foreign capital and has created a globalized economy sensitive to the confidence of world capital markets. Moreover, the Thai middle classes cannot be characterized as having coherent political preferences, and it is arguable that the 1992 middle class protests were more about suspicions of official corruption than about democracy.

Electoral Institutions, Ethnopolitical Cleavages, And Party Systems In Africa's Emerging Democracies, Shaheen Mozaffar, J. R. Scarritt, G. Galaich

Political Science Faculty Publications

Do electoral institutions and ethnopolitical cleavages shape the structure of party systems separately or jointly? We examine the independent, additive, and interactive effects on the number of electoral and legislative parties of two institutional variables (district magnitude and proximity of presidential and legislative elections), one intervening variable (effective number of presidential candidates), and two new measures of ethnopolitical cleavages based on constructivist specification of ethnopolitical groups (fragmentation and concentration). Ethnopolitical fragmentation independently reduces the number of parties but, interactively with ethnopolitical concentration, increases it. However, the additive and interactive combinations of both measures with electoral institutions explain the largest amount …

Justice For A Genocide?, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

In Rwanda today it is considered poor manners to cry at funerals. Public grieving for the death of a single person is thought to minimize the grief people felt after the genocide when many people lost entire families. That genocide was eight years ago and to date little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice. The newly established gacaca courts are meant to rectify this situation and assess the guilt or innocence of some of the tens of thousands of people now held in Rwandan jails.

The Art Of Judgment: An Organizational Analysis Of The New York City Fire Department, September 11, 2001 (A Case Study), Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the airliner crash in Pennsylvania have placed immeasurable stress upon the victims, cleanup crews and the American people. The grief and shock caused by the events will have lasting consequences. Currently organizations are in a stage of reassessing their roles played before, during and after the crisis in order to improve responses to any possible future tragedies. Additionally affected people in organizations involved in the events are trying to overcome tremendous pain and a severe sense of loss in moving beyond the attacks and its aftermath. …

Technologies, Institutions, And Social Issues In Arms Control And Transbounary Water-Resources Agreements, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Peter H. Gleick, Kelli L. Larson, Arian L. Pregenzer, Aaron T. Wolf

Political Science Faculty Publications

The world of environmental security is bringing the science of natural resources in ever-closer contact with the policy issues of international stability and foreign affairs. Many U.S. and international agencies—including the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Southern African Development Community— now analyze foreign policy in part through the lens of environmental resources. In October 2001, three organizations—the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security; the Department of Geosciences of Oregon State University; and the Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) at

Sandia National Laboratories—sponsored a workshop designed to highlight the closeness of …